Yanks Win, Matsui News

The Yankee bats finally busted out of their collective slump and hammered the Rangers, salvaging the final game of the 3-game series, and winning 18-7. We saw a few significant things tonight, for one, whatever trust the team had in Sidney Ponson is probably out the window. If he had done well in this game, Brian Cashman probably could have held off and allowed him to stay (you know, 5 ER would have been acceptable), but now its seems like his hand will be forced to get another solid starter, whether he’s from the minors or the trade market, because the team can’t score 18 every game. Also, Robinson Cano was 2-for-5 tonight and was really hitting well (even his outs were hard liners). He’s a career .354 hitter in July, so this is his month and he’s definitely working on his current line (4-for-12 this series).

OK, now some quick news on Matsui. It was believed that Hideki Matsui was getting better and could be ready for some BP this weekend. However, now it looks like Matsui could be out until after the AS break (there goes his DH spot). Tough loss for the Yanks, but they’ll have to cope. Betemit is swinging the bat well and with Gardner up, they certainly have some options to turn to.

Duncan Hurts Shoulder

Shelley Duncan was in a sling after making a “kamikaze” like catch in last night’s AAA game. Not sure how long he’ll be out, but that’s tough luck for Shelley. I wonder if we’ll see him again this year?

Cashman’s Trade History

The guys over at MLBTR have a great excel sheet that documents each of Brian Cashman’s trades throughout his GM tenure. Check it out, it’s pretty interesting to look back on some of the moves.

Hank Speaks

Whenever the Yankees are looking terrible, we can always count on Hank Steinbrenner to bring them out of their doldrums. Hank had this to say about his team:

“We’ve got to start hitting,” he said Wednesday. “It’s getting ridiculous. They’ve got to start waking up. They’ve shown in flashes what they can still do.”

For whatever reason, I actually think this was a great and timely move by Hank. Let’s see if this works. The Yankees have lost a series to the Reds and to the Rangers this month. That’s sad.

Joe Girardi’s Glaring Mistakes

Now, the title of this post speaks for itself. Joe Girardi has been a disappointment as a manager (that’s how I feel), and I really can’t think of any situation where he has truly excelled. I mean, in terms of bullpen management, Joe has done a fairly good job and hasn’t been scared to leave in his rookie pitchers in tough situations (e.g. Dave Robertson against Texas yesterday) and has rewarded pitchers like Edwar Ramirez with more confidence and support (Jose Veras owes him). However, he has made some troubling mistakes that are definitely apparent to any baseball fan, whether they’re watching games for a few day or for few years. Here are a few noticeable mishaps:

1. Girardi’s lineups — OK, so Joe Girardi had to go to a bunch of different lineups earlier in the season when Jorge Posada, A-Rod and Derek Jeter all missed a substantial amount of time due to injuries. Nevertheless, Sunday’s game against Oliver Perez demonstrates a few things about Joe Girardi. With that weak and very insufficient lineup, Joe showed us 3 things: 1) he does not trust his veteran left-handed hitters against a lefty; 2) he does not look at specific stats, as Cano, Abreu, and Giambi have all hit extremely well against lefties this season; 3) he is not creative or intelligent with his day off decisions as any real manager with an acumen for the short-term and the long-term (combined) would realize that giving 3 regular starters an off-day all on the same day would not benefit his team in the short-term and it would then hurt them down the road. That game was a 1-run game and Girardi didn’t help matters at all.

2. Girardi’s unwarranted confidence — Joe Girard is too trustworthy. When Mike Mussina was facing Manny Ramirez, we all know what happened (a bunch of times) and letting Moose pitch to Mussina was a weak display. While Joe has shown a level of extreme confidence in his pitching staff which has helped him and burned him, this has been his flaw when dealing with his own hitters. It worked for Jason Giambi, I’ll give him that, but he also stuck with unproven hitters like Shelley Duncan for too long. Also, Jose Molina, while a good defensive catcher, has been plugged into the lineup way too much in the past few games. Molina has an OBP under .300 and with the Yankee offense scuffling, why not give Chad Moeller a shot? I mean, if you have 3 catchers on the roster, why not give the 3rd a shot at least once or twice?

3. Girardi’s distrust in his pitchers — OK, so Girardi has trusted his pitchers/hitters TOO much at some points, but he has also not given them the benefit of the doubt at other points. Look at Mike Mussina who was told to walk Jay Bruce in order to face Jolbert Cabrera. Now, let’s put this into context. Moose was given the green light to pitch against Manny Ramirez a few weeks earlier (with 1st open), but now, he’s told to walk Jay Bruce, who, at the time, was a slumping rookie? So, how does that make sense? Oh yeah, it doesn’t. Speaking of double standards, let’s not forget that Derek Jeter was held out of the lineup last night after for going 0-for-4 the day before. What’s funny is that Jeter was kept in the lineup after getting hit by a pitch in the wrist from Daniel Cabrera a few weeks ago, causing him to fall into a dreadful slump. Jeter was kept in the lineup then, but he can’t hit for Melky Cabrera last night (speaking of which, let me get to that)…

4. Girardi’s late situations — So, today, Joe Girardi had the opportunity to let Betemit hit, which I’m glad he did, in the 9th. Betemit has been swinging the bat well lately, so I wasn’t really opposed to this move because for all I know, he could have tied the game with a swing. Now, here’s the funny part. With Betemit on base, Girardi allowed Melky Cabrera to hit. Here’s the thing, Melky was 0-for-17 when he was at bat, and he was also hitting from the right side. Melky hits under .200 from the right against lefties, so why did Girardi do this? Well, according to a NY Times article, Joe thought that Melky hitting from the right would do something positive. Now please, anyone, can anyone point to anything that would provide Joe with this indication? Exactly, there’s nothing. Joe said that Jeter would have PH’d for Gadner if Damon would have gotten on base, but by sending in Mariano in the 9th, aren’t you giving a “must win now” message? So, why not put Jeter in for Melky? Again, this is another bonehead move by Girardi.

5. There are a lot of glaring moments had by Joe Girardi where he did something that just made no sense, whatsoever. Last night was a key point of that situation. However, there are also underlying actions which have hurt the Yankees and cost them runs. For instance, a few weeks ago, IPK was starting and Girardi decided to give Melky Cabrera (a young, 23-year old) a day off from CF. He had Damon in at CF and on a play to center, a runner scored on a weak throw by Damon. If Cabrera had been in there, then the Yanks could have held off on that run. People might think I’m nitpicking here but remember, Chien-Ming Wang was around during that time and if you were ever going to give Cabrera a day off, why not do it on the day when Wang hits mostly grounders to the IF? Why sit him when a struggling IPK could use all the defense he could get? See that, this is another move that people forget but Girardi really dropped the ball.

At the end of the day, there are countless things that Joe Girardi has done wrong. Whether it’s showing bunt with Jorge Posada in his second AB (with Giambi on first), or if it’s Brett Gardner bunting in the first inning of a game against the worst rotation in baseball, Joe has done wrong. Joe Torre had trouble managing the bullpen, he had trouble rallying his team at times, but he didn’t make so many egregious and tactical errors, in such a short period of time. Girardi’s mistakes have been glaring and have truly hurt the Yankees in the AL East. When I can look at my hand and count how many games could have been won if the Yankees made smarter decisions in the late innings, that’s really sad.